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I read the most interesting thing today...ship building times

G

Garyius2003

SOC-13
American Navy. PCU America, currently being made small carrier for helos, V-22s and F35 VTOLs. Laid down 2009, planned to commission in 2014.

USS Saginaw Bay, WWII. Escort carrier. Laid down in November, Commissioned in March.

I think High Guard and Trillion Credit Squadron may by a little too fixed to reflect changes in circumstances.
 
Garyius2003 said:
American Navy. PCU America, currently being made small carrier for helos, V-22s and F35 VTOLs. Laid down 2009, planned to commission in 2014.

USS Saginaw Bay, WWII. Escort carrier. Laid down in November, Commissioned in March.

I think High Guard and Trillion Credit Squadron may by a little too fixed to reflect changes in circumstances.
Click to expand...

The real comparison would be man-hours to complete. After all, during WWII the number of shipbuilders working on Saginaw Bay is way higher than the number of people working on America.
 
pendragonman said:
The real comparison would be man-hours to complete. After all, during WWII the number of shipbuilders working on Saginaw Bay is way higher than the number of people working on America.
Click to expand...

I'd lay odds the Saginaw Bay had far fewer man hours needed, too, and that the huge list of workers was doing work of multiple ships at once, where the America is essentially an only child.

Plus, they aren't doing wartime construction mode. Go to round the clock max rate, "gotta build it before the _______ take over the world."
 
Not only that, there are the following differences:

USS Saginaw Bay: Displacement: 7,800 long tons (7,900 t) (light); 10,400 long tons (10,600 t) (full load)
Length: 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) overall
Beam: 65 ft 2 in (19.86 m); 108 ft 1 in (32.94 m) (maximum width)
Draft: 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Design is based strongly on the C-3 civilian cargo ship.

PCU America: Displacement: 44,971 long tons (45,693 t) full load
Length: 844 feet (257.3 meters)
Beam: 106 feet (32.3 meters)
Draft: 26 feet (7.9 meters)
Design is full military-spec.

For a more even-handed comparison, these were also built during WW2 and are closer in size to America:
Essex-class carrier: Displacement: 30,800 long tons (31,300 t) std; 36,380 long tons (36,960 t) full
Length: 870 ft (265.2 m) oa (short-bow units); 888 ft (270.7 m) oa (long-bow units)
Beam: 93 ft (28.3 m) wl; 147.5 ft (45.0 m) max
Draught: 23 ft (7.0 m) std; 27.5 ft (8.4 m) fl
Design is full military-spec.

Shortest build-time of the 24 completed is for 3 different units, 1 year 3 months. These were early-war units, the ones completed near the end of the war took around 1 year 6-7 months, but at least one took over 2 years.
 
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You can also add in that the current ship is going to have a LOT more electronics onboard, with corresponding wiring, air conditioning, and space requirements. Also, that current accommodation standards are far higher than WW2 standards, requiring more individual compartments. Add in no round-the-clock working days, and your building time is considerably longer.
 
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